Religion in Schools - What About Religious Freedom?

Should organised religion be allowed in schools and who makes that decision? Allowing a specific religion into schools is usually the decision of supporters of that religion and it does not include the freedom of other religious denominations or those who prefer not to align with the rules of organised religion. Is that truely what we want in a free society?

A more acceptable dispensation would maybe be to allow all religions equal attention or to ban religion from schools altogether. Schools is where we teach children, it is not the place to impress upon them the views of one religion without their reasonable understanding of what other religions are about. Who are we to decide we know better than children anyway when it comes to religion or their relationship with divinity? If we truely knew the answers would the world not have been a better place?

In matters of divinity there are no experts in this world. No university can give anybody a degree in divinity even though they are arrogant enough to do that. I might know more about divinity from a single experience than a man with a degree could know from an entire lifetime of study. So in the end who knows the answers?

We humans should sometimes consider ourselves not to know as much as we think we do. Do all religions not have their foundation in humility? Let's consider humility in educating children in something we consider to be exclusively right, ie. our religious views. If only one religion is exclusively right it means God is not as powerful as we thought He/She was, because He/She only has the ability to save a small portion of the people in this world. It is a paradox and anybody who has had a divine experience will tell you living in the paradox is much closer to finding God than anything else because God cannot be pinned down. And just there is another paradox ...

Someone once said "the way to enlightenment is to know there is no enlightenment."

Let's not suppose to bully upon other religions our religious views, because that is what leads to the "us and them" syndrome and we all know that leads to intolerance and intolerance leads to violence and war. Love and acceptance is the way and all the great teachers in history, ie. Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed have taught us that. Let's teach our children that.

The Tank Man

Who can remember how after the brutal Chinese Crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989 there was one man who stood up to the combined might of the Chinese Army the next morning when everybody else had gone home to lick their wounds.

Being in the military myself I can assure you a tank is an extremely scary proposition and not only did he stand infront of a platoon of tanks, but it was a platoon of tanks that had the anger of the Chinese Government behind them and had shown they had no problem shooting at unarmed civilians.

After this photo was taken he was lead away by plain-clothes security officials and nobody knows if he is still alive or not. One thing is certain, his display of raw courage will always be remembered.

Transcendental Meditation

I recently managed to learn the Transcendental Meditation Technique during a trip to Pretoria.

TM is practiced by millions of people throughout the world and has no basis in religion whatsoever. Celebrities who practice the technique include David Lynch, Heather Graham, etc. The (non-existing) religious issue is one that apparently bothers many people. Religiously speaking what one could maybe expect is to have a transcending experience within the boundaries of your chosen religion. How can you experience another religion if you do not believe in any other religion? TM rather makes space for what you on a very profound level believe to be divinity as based on your religion.

I also found myself mystified by those who claim that the TM Movement is a cult. If so then who is the cult leader and how is he/she obtaining power? The Maharishi died years ago. Where some religions refer to "end times" the thought of "end times" do not even surface in TM. If I remember correctly at the height of all religious cults the respective cult leaders managed to persuade their followers to commit mass suicide based on "end times" prophesy. This madness does not feature in TM, at all.

For those skeptical about the benefits of TM I would suggest reading books like Dr Herbert Benson's "The Relaxation Response." Personally I would suggest the technique to anybody in a heartbeat.

Shaun Tomson - South African Surfing Pioneer

Shaun Tomson is worth a mention on my blog. He revolutionised the way people surf together with individuals like his friend Rabbit Bartholomew. The following comes out of Wikipedia:

Shaun Tomson born on August 21, 1955 in Durban, South Africa is a professional surfer and former world champion, environmentalist, actor, and businessman. He was born Shaun Tomchinsky and as a Jewish athlete, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1995. He learned to surf in the beachbreaks in and around Durban under the watchful eye of his father Ernie, and alongside older cousin Michael Tomson. The Tomson boys went on to dominate amateur gaming competition in South Africa and began venturing over to Hawaii in the late 60's to game and learn about the huge and powerful waves there. It was on one of these trips that an awestruck 14 year old Tomson eyewitnessed the so-called "Biggest Wave Ever Known" by Californian Greg Noll at Makaha in 1969. Hawaii's surf proved to be a daunting challenge for the youngsters, but they continued to mature and train in South Africa's hollow waves, such as Cave Rock, the Bay Of Plenty, Green Point, and Jeffrey's Bay.

In 1975, Shaun and Michael were an integral part of the "Free Ride" generation. They, along with Australians Rabbit Bartholomew, Mark Richards, Ian Cairns, Peter Townsend, Mark Warren, and others rode the infamous waves along Oahu's legendary North Shore with a style, aggression, and raw courage unseen prior to their arrival. Collectively, these surfers changed the face of surfing and were the first to really apply themselves as serious professional surfers. With his good looks, eloquence, and undeniable athleticism, Tomson served by default as the face and voice of this movement, and he is still viewed as the prototype blueprint for today's pro surfer, with legions of fans throughout the world. Tomson won the highly coveted IPS World Championship in 1977.

On a performance level, Tomson completely changed the way the tube of the wave was ridden, using a completely unique style of pumping and weaving through and around collapsing sections of the barrel. Even today, his electrifying performances at Off The Wall and Backdoor Pipeline stand the test of time. A very underrated aspect of Tomson's inventiveness was his in the tube punch throughs where he escaped unscathed from hideous closeout sections over a shallow reef.

Tomson currently lives with wife Carla in Montecito, CA and is very active as a member and spokesman with the The Surfrider Foundation. He is also involved with his family clothing venture, Solitude. JC Penney recently signed on as distributor for Solitude Clothing in the US.

Tragically, the Tomsons' son Mathew died on April 24th, 2006 in Durban, South Africa from an accidental death caused by playing the "choking game." With the support of family, friends, and the global surfing community, the Tomsons continue to push on with life, business, and environmental interests. Tomson recently co-produced a full length feature film about the benchmark mid-70's surfing era called, "Bustin' Down The Door" which premiered in early 2008.

Deshun Deysel - South African Mountaineer

Unfortunately I was unable to het a photo of Deshun Deysel. This South African lady has not only scaled Everest twice, but is also the first ever black woman to reach that height. Today she is a successful motivational speaker who uses the climbing of Mount Everest as a metaphor for overcoming anything in life.

South African Girl and her Horse Inspire Hollywood Movie

I found this article very inspiring. Thanks to Renette for bringing it to my attention:

Charles Smith

Bloemfontein - The inspirational story of a South African girl and her blind horse’s steadfast trust in each other is the stuff that Hollywood hits are made of.

American production house Warner Bros and its local agent, Film Africa, are in negotiations for the rights to film the story of Chelsey Cooper, 14, and her horse, Lady Domain

Lady Domain and Chelsey - a pupil at Oranje Girls’ High School in Bloemfontein - won three South African saddle horse championship titles after the mare became blind

The blonde girl refused to have her horse put down after an accident resulted in her becoming blind.

Before the accident, they won national eventing titles in the U12 and U18 classes for 15.1 hand horses

Trust

She taught the mare to trust her 100%, and so she became Lady Domain’s eyes. Chelsey gave Lady the self-confidence to carry on winning

“We beat them easily, Lady,” she told her horse when they won the South African eventing championship for her age group in 2008

Only a small group of people were aware of the fact that Lady is completely blind. The judges were not aware of this, and a blind horse is not allowed to compete. The fact that veterinarians thought Lady still had slight vision in her left eye was the loophole they needed.

Chelsey’s mother, Anneli Cooper, said Lady Domain is the only disabled horse in the world who could win a national title while competing against “normal” horses.

“Before the championship, one participant told Chelsey he knew that her horse was blind – but they would give Lady a chance. Chelsey was determined that the two of them would ‘give 100% and win’,” said her mother

'The Natalie du Toit of saddle horses'

After an article about “the Natalie du Toit of saddle horses” appeared, people started phoning from all over to say how Chelsey and Lady had inspired them.

One mother apparently phoned to say how her son had lost his eyes in a chemical explosion, and did nothing but sit in his chair for six months. She read Lady’s story to him.

“He jumped up and told his mother: ‘Mom, if a blind horse can do it, so can I’. I was crying so much that I put the phone down. I even forgot to ask the woman’s name,” said Anneli.

Lady Domain - who recently turned 10 - is not allowed to compete any longer, but she and Chelsey still perform to inspire.

The film's provisional title is Through My Eyes, although Blind Faith and Never Say Never are also being considered.

Lady will only allow Chelsey to ride her. She also only allows one stable hand, Paulus Mabote, to come near her.

- Volksblad

Exercise Golfinho

A photo of one of our "rebel" soldiers at sunset during Exercise Golfinho recently concluded at the South African Army Combat Training Centre in Lohatlha.

Huey

As part of the SADC Forces at Lohatlha was this Bell UH-1 "Huey" from Zambia. This was only the second time in my life to fly in one of these choppers that was used to pioneer Air Assault Operations by the Americans in Vietnam.

Big Fire

This fire kept us busy for the whole day. Due to a lack of control we were left the whole night in the freezing conditions of Lohatlha dressed in short sleeve summer dress or just thin long sleeve shirts. It took many phone calls to get them to pick us up in the end, but still the convoy only showed up between 4am and 5am.

We stayed warm by making three more fires.

Belligerent Road Block

Platoon 1, C Company having a road block. We tested the negotiation skills and general readiness of the SADC Forces.

Unit Area 6

6 SAI Bn had our part of Exercise Golfinho from Unit Area 6 at the Army Combat Training Centre in Lohatlha. The CTC is full of signs with famous quotes on warfare. This one is the quote from George Patton "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week."

Sharpening the Air Assault Spear

The second half of a chalk of Air Assault soldiers doing a left door exit on Tuesday at 6 SAI Bn.

It is interesting to note that most of the problems experienced by the UN in the Congo (and other places) could in theory be solved by employing the techniques utilised by Air Assault. A platoon of Air Assault Soldiers could fast rope into an area where suspected belligerents were operating, carry out whatever task and then be extracted by means of the rope extraction method. The UN reliance on roads could be curbed and the knowledge belligerents would develop that there is no place for them to hide would ensure a much safer countryside.

I suspect that by effectively employing a company of South African Air Assault Soldiers with trackers the whole Eastern DRC could be turned peaceful in months.

Boarding for Another Go

A section of South African Air Assault soldiers run to the waiting chopper to fast rope as part of the training we did on Tuesday.

Fast Roping Training for 6 SAI Bn

Tuesday. Two of our soldiers slide down the rope from an Oryx Helicopter at the Grahamstown Skydiving Club.

A Short Term Perceived Solution Called "War"

What goes around comes around. The American CIA calls it "Blowback". It teaches us that war does not solve problems, it just creates more problems. As a soldier I understand the hopelessness of war and realise that my skill as an Air Assault Infantry Officer only helps me to win battles, but it does not ensure lasting peace.

I also know that the consciousness I have regarding the fruitlessness of war is present in all people, but like an addiction we still endeavour to wage war for the drugs we call adrenalin, making money, danger, power, large scale mobilisation, military maneuvring, playing at war, military romance and respect from other nations based on fear. We look for the short term highs war unfortunately does bring. In short we do not really want peace because we actually think peace is boring. In consciouness we agree that peace is what we want and that it is a better proposition than war, but in the unconsciousness created by nationalistic fervour with the help of the media we lose that consciouness and most people jump on the conflict-is-the-only-way bandwagon.

The only way to stop our wild roller-coaster ride and to save the billions we spend on national defence in South Africa and the world is to create an atmosphere conducive to peace by means of applying the powerful forces available to us in science. I am talking about the extreme power found in the realm of the Unified Field, which is even stronger than nuclear power just as nuclear power is so much stronger than chemical power.

On this level the power of the Unified Field is made understandeable to us by means of meditations such as Transcendental Meditation because the science might not really be that easy to comprehend. Based on the science of quantum physics on the level of the Unified Field by means of group meditation it is possible to create an output of energy that can actually reduce violence in a sub region. This has been scientifically proven in experiment after experiment conducted throughout the world. The amount of meditators (and "meditators" is a simplified way of explaining it) should match one percent of the square root of the population of said sub-region to have an influence. In the case of South Africa that amounts to 700 to 1000 individuals applying the method according the the TM-Sidhi Programme as explained on the website http://www.invincibility.org/

In 1992 Mozambique applied Invincible Defence Technology and war did not flare up again as it so often does in Africa whenever a previous war ends. In that country 14 000 practitioners of the TM-Sidhi Programme were trained and today it is still one of the more peaceful countries in Africa. The successful examples of using the TM-Sidhi Programme and meditation like Transcendental Meditation in the world abound and are too numerous to mention here. For more information have a look at some of my links in the right margin of this page.

For more information you can also read this article written by By Dr. John Hagelin and Dr. David Leffler as published in the Senegambia News: "Pakistan Must Go Beyond Nuclear Weapons to Obtain Real Invincible Defence".

Training Charlie Company

I spent the last couple of days in the bush with live fire exercises training my sub-unit. I took this photo during a platoon attack.

Nuclear Fusion Power the Future

Currently South Africa is using a normal nuclear fission power plant at Koeberg. The South African Government plans to build five new nuclear fission power plants by 2014. Are we too hasty?

A consortium from the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan has proposed to build a fusion reactor called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Cadarache, France from 2010 to demonstrate the feasibility of using sustained fusion reactions for making electricity. Nuclear Fusion is basically the opposite of nuclear fission and we know it as pictured above, hydrogen bombs.

Nuclear fusion promises to be less dangerous, more powerful and with less nuclear waste than the old nuclear fission power plants. It promises to be the future until we learn to harness the power of the Unified Field and Zero Point Energy, and on that day for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

The second part of that last sentence comes from a well known quote by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. “The day will come when after harnessing the ether, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."

The South African Factor

On 22 January 1879 a 20,000 strong Zulu army equipped mainly with iron spears and cowhide shields fought a force consisting of a mixed British and native force, 1200 to 2000 strong, armed with the then state of the art, Martini Henry Breech Loading Rifle and artillery. The Zulus defeated the British Force killing around 1300 men.

In the First War of Independence (1880-1881) the South African Boers defeated the British Empire. Years later in the Second War of Independence or Second Boer War the South Africans initially took the advantage using modern tactics taken from the American Civil War and the First Boer War, but were eventually defeated. Although the South Africans lost the war their contributions to warfare live on today with the word "Commandos", which referred to units of mounted Boers who were excellent marksmen and riders. Today special forces are referred to as Commandos.

South Africa served in both the First and Second World Wars and there are many stories of South African victories and heroism to be told. At Delville Wood there is still a monument to be seen for the selfless contribution we made during that battle. South African Forces featured in both Africa and Italy during World War 2. During World War 2 General Jan Smuts was the only non-British soldier sought for advice by Winston Churchill and would years later establish the League of Nations which would become the UN in later years. Thus the first groundwork for the United Nations was actually laid by Jan Smuts.

The South African Army and Air Force played a major role in defeating the Italian forces of Benito Mussolini during the 1940/1941 East African Campaign. The converted Junkers Ju 86s of 12 Squadron, South African Air Force, carried out the first bombing raid of the campaign on a concentration of tanks at Moyale at 8am on 11 June 1940, mere hours after Italy's declaration of war.

Another important victory that the South Africans participated in was the liberation of Malagasy (now known as Madagascar) from the control of the Vichy French who were allies of the Nazis. British troops aided by South African soldiers, staged their attack from South Africa, landing on the strategic island on 4 May 1942 to preclude its seizure by the Japanese.

The South African 1st Infantry Division took part in several actions in North Africa in 1941 and 1942, including the Battle of El Alamein, before being withdrawn to South Africa to be re-constituted as an armoured division.

The South African 6th Armoured Division fought in numerous actions in Italy from 1944 to 1945.

The South African Air Force (SAAF) made a significant contribution to the air war in East Africa, North Africa, Sicily, Italy, the Balkans and even as far east as bombing missions aimed at the Romanian oilfields in Ploiesti, supply missions in support of the Warsaw uprising and reconnaissance missions ahead of the Russian advances in the Lvov-Cracow area.

Numerous South African airmen also volunteered serivce to the RAF, some serving with distinction. Sailor Malan (Adolph Gysbert Malan) was a South African and the top fighter ace during the Battle of Britain. He established the Ten Rules of Air Fighting which is still taught today.

South Africa contributed to the war effort against Japan, supplying men and manning ships in naval engagements against the Japanese.

Of the 334,000 men volunteered for full time service in the South African Army during the war (including some 211,000 whites, 77,000 blacks and 46,000 "coloureds" and Asians), nearly 9,000 were killed in action.

Post-war, the SAAF also took part in the Berlin airlift of 1948 with 20 aircrews flying Royal Air Force Dakotas.

South Africa also contributed to the Korean War mainly as fighter pilots in the famous 2 Squadron known as the "Flying Cheetahs."

It won many American decorations, including the unusual honour of a United States Presidential Unit Citation in 1952 which read:

"2 Sqn had a long and distinguished record of service in Korea flying P-51D Mustangs and later F-86F Sabres. Their role was mainly flying ground attack and interdiction missions as one of the squadrons making up the USAF's 18th Fighter Bomber Wing."

"During the Korean conflict the squadron flew a grand total of 12 067 sorties for a loss of 34 pilots and two other ranks. Aircraft losses amounted to 74 out of 97 Mustangs and four out of 22 Sabres. Pilots and men of the squadron received a total of 797 medals including 2 Silver Stars - the highest award to non-American nationals - 3 Legions of Merit, 55 Distinguished Flying Crosses and 40 Bronze Stars. 8 pilots became POWs. Casualties: 20 KIA 16 WIA."

In the sixties, seventies and eighties South Africa in essence fought a civil war as the Apartheid Government fought the Freedom Fighters of mainly the ANC as well as a war in Northern South West Africa/Namibia and Southern Angola.

Today South Africa leads the way in sporting victories. At present we have the number one ranked cricket team in the world as well as the Springbok Rugby Team which has won the Rugby World Cup twice. The movie "The Human Factor" was directed by Clint Eastwood on the 1995 World Cup victory and will be launched soon. Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon plays Francois Pienaar.

Several important scientific and technological developments have originated in South Africa. The first human to human heart transplant was performed by cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in December 1967. Max Theiler developed a vaccine against Yellow Fever, Allan McLeod Cormack pioneered x-ray Computed tomography, and Aaron Klug developed crystallographic electron microscopy techniques. These advancements were all recognised with Nobel Prizes. Sydney Brenner won most recently, in 2002, for his pioneering work in molecular biology.

South Africa has also cultivated a burgeoning astronomy community. It hosts the Southern African Large Telescope, the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. South Africa is currently building the Karoo Array Telescope as a pathfinder for the $20 billion Square Kilometer Array project. South Africa is a finalist, with Australia, to be the host of the SKA.

South African contributions to the world are too many to name here and even though we have problems like any other country the future looks bright because this country is built on the spirit of who we are. Here is looking to the future. The government plans to build another three or four nuclear power stations to be ready by 2014 and the economy is expanding even though it is being thwarted by the current recession. A sign of a stable economy is how it stands up in a recession and the South African Economy is not doing too badly and should also be boosted by the 2010 Soccer World Cup being hosted here.

The Next Press Release on IDT

In times when people struggle they actually grow as they let go of their preconceptions about the world we live in and look for other ways to do things and to understand things. That happens to be in the spirit of the ever-changing world and universe we inhabit. Nothing stays the same and our attempts to keep them the same actually just hastens along the change. Comfort should never last too long because learning and changing is never comfortable.

What follows here is another press release on Invincible Defence Technology. It seems like more people are starting to see the value of this practice. For the full press release go here.

June 30, 2009

Press Release - Peace in the Middle East: Scientific solution to a political problem?

Peace in the Middle East is easily within our grasp, as indicated by a new scientific paper published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration on 29 June 2009.

The study addresses the possibility that a relatively small group of people practising the Transcendental Meditation™ and TM-Sidhi programme®, as founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, twice daily together in a group can create peace in the Middle East.

The hypothesis is not new. Fifty studies have found that when 1% of the population practises Transcendental Meditation, or sufficiently large groups practise the TM-Sidhi programme together twice daily, it can have a positive influence on society as a whole. The studies show, for example, decreased violence, crime, car accidents, and suicides, and improved quality of life in a society. Critics had questioned the credibility of the evidence in light of the unconventional nature of the proposition.

Reduced conflict and improved quality of life in the Middle East: August-September 1983. A composite sociological index closely tracks the size of a group practising the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programme. (See details in text below.)

The new analysis addresses this question more thoroughly than previously. It presents new statistical evidence that all credible conventional explanations -- such as military and political events, public holidays, and the weather -- could not explain the observed statistically significant changes in sociological variables shown in an earlier study on the influence of groups practising the TM-Sidhi programme (Orme-Johnson DW, Alexander CN, Davies JL, Chandler HM, & Larimore WE. International peace project in the Middle East: The effect of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field. Journal of Conflict Resolution 1988 32:776-812, findings illustrated above). The observed changes in the Middle East included reductions in war deaths of 75%, war intensity of 45%, in crime of 12%, in fires of 30%, plus there were improvements in national mood of 27% and the stock market of 7% during the experimental period.

Although conventional factors did have a measureable influence on the level of violence and other sociological variables, the effect of the Transcendental Meditation group was, according to the researchers, both independent of these other factors and approximately two to five times stronger.

Brain research has found that Transcendental Meditation increases coherence in brain functioning. Lead author of the new study David Orme-Johnson, former Chairman of the Psychology Department at Maharishi University of Management, suggests that: "Given the assumption of Maharishi's theory that individuals are the units of collective consciousness, increased coherence at the individual level could be expected to have a positive effect on the population level."

According to a number of earlier studies, this effect is magnified when, in addition to Transcendental Meditation, the more advanced TM-Sidhi programme, which includes Yogic Flying, is practised in a group. In this case, the square root of 1% of a population practising Yogic Flying in a group is the threshold at which changes in social trends begin to be observed. Interestingly, this effect appears to be irrespective of national borders and different cultures. According to the theory, a group of 10,000 generating such an influence of coherence would be sufficient to noticeably influence the collective consciousness of the whole world.

If the science is so watertight, and the potential benefits so great, the obvious question, then, is: Why has no one yet established such a group anywhere in the world? One reason why policy makers have been reluctant to do so is that they take the view that conventional military and political factors must have more influence than Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying. However, the new research has shown that this assumption is quite incorrect.

A coherence-creating group of 10,000 people could be established for less than 0.2% of the world's military expenditure, and yet, according to the research, could ensure a stable state of world peace.

The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, founded by the award-winning filmmaker, joined with Paul McCartney in April to raise funds to teach Transcendental Meditation to one million at-risk children. The benefit concert in New York is said to have raised £2m on ticket sales and fund raising continues. The philanthropic Foundation is already involved in teaching Transcendental Meditation in schools in the Middle East with the explicit aim of creating permanent peace in the region.

South Africa Defeats the British and Irish Lions

Although this blog is not meant for sport, as a South African anything phenomenal accomplished by South Africans will be posted as firstly I am South African.

For those who are not quite up to date with the international sporting world, the British and Irish Lions tour South Africa every twelve years and they consist out of the Rugby Unions of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. As rugby goes this is the ultimate together with the World Cup and today in the final minute of the second test Morne Steyn put over a fifty three metre penalty kick from the touch line to seal the series for us 2-0 with one test left to play.

Well done, boys, you have made every South African immensely proud.

Invincible Defence Technology Receiving more Recognition

By Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Kulwant Singh, Col. Brian Rees, and Dr. David Leffler

In congressional testimony, Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal vowed that he would use a "holistic" strategy and take extreme measures to avoid Afghan civilian casualties. Its "measure of effectiveness will not be the number of enemy killed, it will be the number of Afghans shielded from violence," he said.

By starting to think holistically and measuring the effectiveness of avoiding casualties, McChrystal is on the right track. However, his new strategy may not be sufficient to bring an end to the protracted violence. War is based in social stress that is not likely to be ended by changing the rules of engagement, limiting airstrikes or using small ground units in search and detention operations.

Although a military solution to the Afghanistan war is improbable, it is possible to deploy a scientifically verified technology of defense to reduce societal stress and end the war. Extensive research has confirmed its effectiveness, and militaries have already applied it in order to defuse and eliminate conflict and prevent disruption and attack from within the country or outside the country.

Meditation has been shown to reduce stress not only in the individual but also throughout society. The Vedic tradition of knowledge, from ancient India, includes highly developed, non-religious meditation practices-in particular the Transcendental Meditation program and its advanced techniques-that have become the focus of intense scientific research over the past 50 years. These practices, taken together, are known as Invincible Defense Technology (IDT) in military circles. They have been used by members of many faiths to eliminate conflict in the recent past. If the military were to apply this human resource-based technology, which is non-lethal and non-destructive, it could reduce the collective societal stress fueling the tensions in Afghanistan.

A Prevention Wing of the Military would be the ideal way to achieve this goal. It would comprise about 2 to 3 percent of the military of Afghanistan. The personnel involved would practice these technologies in large groups, morning and evening. Studies show that when the size of the IDT group reaches a particular threshold, war and terrorism abate, crime goes down in the affected population, and quality-of-life indices go up.

Scientists have named this phenomenon the Maharishi Effect after Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who first predicted it. In 1993, a two-month Maharishi Effect intervention was studied in Washington, DC. Predictions of specific drops in crime and other indices were lodged in advance with government leaders and newspapers. The research protocol was approved by an independent Project Review Board. The findings, published in Social Indicators Research, showed that crime fell 23 percent below the predicted level when the IDT group reached its maximum. Temperature, weekend effects, and previous trends in the data failed to account for changes.

Over 50 studies have evaluated and confirmed the reduction of crime, violence, terrorism, and even open warfare through the establishment of IDT groups. The causal mechanism has been postulated to be a field effect of consciousness-a spillover effect on the level of the unified field from the peace-creating group into the larger population. A study published in the Journal of Social Behavior and Personality offers an explanation of a proposed causality of IDT in biological terms. Research on the powerful neurotransmitter serotonin has shown that it produces feelings of contentment, happiness and even euphoria. Low levels of serotonin correlate with violence, aggression, and poor emotional moods. The peer-reviewed study showed that higher numbers of IDT experts practicing in groups correlated with an increase in serotonin production among other community members. These results were statistically significant and followed the attendance figures in the IDT group. This finding offers a plausible neurophysiologic mechanism to explain reduced aggression and hostility in society at large.

The Maharishi Effect has also been documented on a global scale in a study published in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. When large assemblies of IDT experts exceeded the Maharishi Effect threshold for the world (about 7,000 at that time) during the years 1983-1985, terrorism globally decreased 72%, international conflict decreased 32%, and violence was reduced in other nations without intrusion by other governments. This study used data provided by the Rand Corporation.
The evidence indicates that the military may be able to accomplish its mission simply by establishing a coherence-creating unit of IDT experts. As part of its responsibility to protect, the military is obligated to thoroughly examine methods for preventing war and terrorism. IDT is such a method. All that is necessary is to provide the proper training for a group of military personnel- or indeed, any large group within the country. Lt. Gen. McChrystal has the opportunity today to implement a cost-effective, scientifically validated and truly holistic strategy to bring peace to Afghanistan.

Events on the ground in Afghanistan and Pakistan may increase the difficulty of exploiting this opportunity in the future.

Original link.

Operation Barbarossa Re-enactment

On Saturday about 14km south of Bloemfontein a large group of enthusiasts and those who just wanted to see what was going on gathered to watch a re-enactment of a small battle as part of Operation Barbarossa.

Operation Barbarossa was launched on 22 June 1941 by Nazi Germany when the Wehrmacht invaded Russia.

Preparing for the Battle

The re-enacters prepare for the "battle" as people get into position to watch.

Some Armour on the Day

During the Operation Barbarossa re-enactment on Saturday 20 June 2009 near Bloemfontein a German armoured car comes up against a Russian T-34 Tank. In reality the armoured car would have stood very little chance, but on the day of the re-enactment it destroyed the tank with a lucky shot.

German World War 2 Soldiers

German soldiers assault the Russian positions.